John Mark,

This is a question that has no single (mathematical) answer, nor one 
that could ever be useful for highway engineers in arguing that running 
heavy machinery over graves would do no damage to them. The amount of 
compressive/shear/vibratory/etc forces that a human interment is able to 
sustain ranges widely from near zero to "very high," depending upon 
several factors, not the least of importance being the physical and 
chemical characteristics of the matrix in which they are contained, the 
type of inclosure the remains may have been placed within, and the age 
and health of the individual at the time of burial (among others).

I don't believe an engineering table can be worked-up to provide such 
answers, nor should such be attempted (the only valid results would 
derive from experimentation on a wide-range of human burials in 
differing matrices under a wide variety of environmental conditions. 
Performing such experimentation would be highly unethical and morally 
bankrupt in the first place, as well as unlikely to produce any useful 
results.

Regards,
Bob Skiles

PS - Your highway manager may likely benefit from a perusal of the 
Dallas "Freedmens' Cemetery" issue and reports of a couple decades ago 
(which involved a highway manager deciding to disregard and pave over a 
black freedmen cemetery, ultimately costing the state and contractors 
several million dollars more than what it would have cost to properly 
investigate and mitigate the cemetery in the first place).

On 3/6/2013 7:51 AM, John Mark Joseph wrote:
>   
> To  All,
> Today, I was asked the following question by a project  manager on a
> highway project: “Can you please refer  me to a study that… “ “would be
> appropriate for determining the maximum pressure  or force that a human burial can
> withstand without damage?” Would anyone  care to weigh-in? If so please write
> me at my email address below as my library  is back in Virginia.  I tried
> to explain the variables but I had to post  the question.
> Si Yu'os  Ma'åse',
> John Mark Joseph
> State Archaeologist, Guam
> 490 Chalan Palasyo
> Agana Heights, GU 96910
> (671)-475-6339
> [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
>